Ear infections, e-cigarettes, and exciting collaborations, oh my! In this week’s research news roundup, we followed the trails of our clinicians and investigators as they used expertise and evidence to weigh in on mainstream health issues.

Sometimes half is better than whole. That’s the idea behind a new multicenter study that Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is participating in to compare a five-day (short) course of antibiotic therapy with a 10-day (standard) course of therapy to treat community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children.

Welcome back to our regular roundup of research news from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia! Now that we are bringing you these updates biweekly, we have an even richer collection of stories to share.

News abounds this first week of spring, and we bring you fresh insights from new scientific studies cultivated by experts at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. But first, take a moment to celebrate a special award that recognizes the dedication of pediatric oncologist Richard Aplenc, MD, PhD, MSCE.

Ron Keren, MD, MPH, was the first author of a study published today in JAMA Pediatrics that showed treating the bone infection osteomyelitis with oral antibiotics did not result in more treatment failures than treatment with intravenous antibiotics

Clinicians must select antibiotics carefully, in order to maintain their effectiveness and limit antimicrobial resistance. Judicious use of antibiotics has important health benefits for children especially because they are prescribed so frequently, usually for outpatient acute respiratory tract infections.

Jeffrey S. Gerber, MD, PhD, recently received an approximately $1.8 million contract from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to compare the effectiveness of broad and narrow-spectrum antibiotics in treating acute respiratory infections.

Ron Keren, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness, was recently awarded nearly two million dollars from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to lead a study examining whether oral antibiotics are as effective at treating infection over an extended period as PICC lines.